This puzzle:

Robert Cirillo notes: I had the idea for this puzzle when my daughter was recovering from a cold, just as I was coming down with it. She was going one ... more

Robert Cirillo notes:

I had the idea for this puzzle when my daughter was recovering from a cold, just as I was coming down with it. She was going one way on the word ladder while I was going the other. Puzzles come from the oddest places.

I thought the theme material needed to be a bit denser, so I added the additional food phrases to pull it together. I really wanted to keep USMAIL next to POSTAL, but paid for it with some blah fill, TSO and HMS.

I was glad to see my clues for DODGE and TOW survived editing. I hope everyone enjoys solving.

Jeff Chen notes: We haven't seen a word ladder in a while. They don't get published that often these days, so when they do, they usually need some ... more

Jeff Chen notes:

We haven't seen a word ladder in a while. They don't get published that often these days, so when they do, they usually need some lift to make them stand out. I like the pairing of AN APPLE A DAY and CHICKEN SOUP, perfect material to add to the SICK -> WELL ladder.

Nice placement of the words in the word ladder. I've highlighted them below to help them stand out — such a pretty cascade.

Even though there aren't that many theme squares — just the two 11s and the six 4s for a total of 46 — needing to use so many different theme entries makes for a tough construction. Robert does well to space them all out as best as possible, both left to right and top to bottom. Smart thinking there.

But it does make for filling challenges just about everywhere in the grid. Because so many of the theme entries are short, it means that there must be more long fill than usual — some entries in the grid have to be long (in order to stay under the max 78 word limit), so if the themers aren't long, fill must be.

That makes things tough. Check out the middle left, for example. Robert has the lovely CENTRAL BANK in there — great fill, at least to this macroeconomics geek — but when that has to interact with SICK and AN APPLE A DAY, and then OUT TO WIN / UNLEASH / COALESCE all get into the picture, it's pretty tough to avoid gluey bits like LESE, MCI, DIO, ONS. That's a lot to concentrate into a single region.

OUT TO WIN felt a bit off, too. "In it to win it" would be gold, in my book. OUT TO WIN … wouldn't win. Additionally, having to work with SILK fixed in place, THOS and OLIO are prices to pay.

I like seeing traditional themes like word ladders once in a while, if they have something extra to help them stand out. Although there were some rough patches due to the long AN APPLE A DAY and CHICKEN SOUP, those two entries helped elevate my solving experience.